Saturday, October 10, 2015

Shambie Mpho writes

If You Look for Me

If you look for me
look for me
In the poverty screams
Of a black child
Down with leprosy
Begging for stones
To heal a broken heart...

Look for me
In my father's frozen face
As he gasps for his last breath
Choking from the bullet-wound
His last steps never reaching home...

Find me
In the joyless cries
Of a retarded infant at birth
Even before the lifeless echo
Of a mother who died in labour
Never saved by state panados
Soul bleeding to an early end...

If you look for me
Never start at the corridors of power
Search for me in the city's street
Scavenging for survival crumbs...

Iam not in suit and tie
I lean on life's broken crutches
To see me through the day...

Iam not in the flashy car
Iam the doll-like face
Lying in eternal state
The grave-digger's dream
The mortician's work of art...

Iam the flower you trample on
The summer's morning breeze
Iam the silent rain
The wind blowing east
Iam agony
Iam pain
Iam life
Iam death
The aborted lump...

Iam the million ghosts
Presented with resentment
I raided evil
Rewarded with AIDS...

Iam life's jilted lover
Culturally wealthy
Draped in poverty
Iam African...

1 comment:

  1. Panado® is the brand name for over-the-counter pain tablets and capsules sold over the counter, "the tried and trusted choice of South African GP's1 for the effective relief of headaches, pain and fever," according to its ads.. Like Tylenol, it contains the active ingredient paracetamol (acetaminophen) and is commonly used for minor pains such as headaches and cold- and flu-related fevers. Unlike other common analgesics such as aspirin and ibuprofen, it has relatively little anti-inflammatory activity, so it is not considered to be a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID).

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